A scene along the first section of the trail, following an abandoned and overgrown section of Tunnel Brook Road.
Bottle Gentian.
A peaceful scene along the undamaged road section of Tunnel Brook Trail.
The footpath section of Tunnel Brook Trail as it briefly runs alongside a low=flowing Tunnel Brook.
I left the trail at the mouth of the ravine and headed through a beautiful maple glade.
Nice hardwood whacking for a while.
In some places the route of the old Tunnel Ravine Trail could be discerned, but in many other places there was no trace of the trail. It was opened in 1930 by DOC. In A Guide to the Moosilauke Range, published by DOC in 1930, the route was called the Tunnel Slide Trail, but on DOC maps from later in the 1930s it was labeled the Tunnel Ravine Trail. From the main Tunnel Brook valley, it led up the ravine past the Tunnel Brook Cascades to the Tunnel Ravine Shelter. From there the trail continued another ¼ mile up the brook, then ascended a slide to the Benton Trail ½ mile below the summit of Moosilauke. The club recommended it as more of an alternate descent route rather than a way to climb the mountain. It was abandoned by the late 1940s.
There are many small cascades along the brook that drains the ravine. Tunnel Ravine has also been called Benton Ravine, and in recent years somehow the names Faraway Ravine and Faraway Ravine Brook have appeared on online maps. Sounds kind of Tolkien-esque.
Here the route of the old trail is obstructed by blowdown and scrub.
The trace of the trail soon dead-ends at a bluff with a very steep sidehill ahead. This is a choke point in the ravine, as there is a horrendous blowdown area (from the 2017 Halloween storm) on the opposite bank.
The last time I came through here, in 2022, I found a way to thread the needle through the choke point by dropping down to the brook and following it to a point past the heinous sidehill. I repeated that route on this trek.
It looks open up there, but only because of a jumbled mess of blowdowns.
Some maneuvering required to follow this route.
After regaining the brookbank, I climbed steeply to a spot with a view of the largest cascade in the ravine (except perhaps on the headwall). I was surprised that there was even this much flow. The1930 DOC guide to Moosilauke noted this "long chute in the brook bed, the rock worn smooth with the water."
View of the cascade from above.
As I continued up the ravine, there were many scenic views of the stream.
A nice sliding cascade.
I mostly stayed in the woods, but where another sidehill closed in it was easier to hop rocks in the brookbed.
Where the ravine broadened, there were some nice sections of open woods.
Each time I come into the ravine, I pay a visit to the collapsed remains of the Tunnel Ravine Shelter.
Like its nameske trail, it was opened for use in 1930 and abandoned by the late 1940s. The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine noted that the shelter was “located in the heart of the wilderness just W of Mt. Moosilauke…surrounded by steep wooded slopes and slides, particularly on the E and S.”
An arrow once pointed the way to the trail.
I took a break here beside the brook.
A nice ferny glade beyond the shelter.
A "debris flow levee" deposited by one of several old slides, now revegetated, on the west wall of the ravine.
The track of one of the old slides. In a 1955 aerial photo at least ten slides can be seen in Tunnel Ravine.
Some more good woods, but farther up the ravine it got much thicker.
A peek at a mid-1980s slide on the east wall of the ravine, which I climbed in 2022, followed by a whack up to the Benton Trail. I don't think I would repeat that trip.
Farther up the ravine, while hopping up the brookbed, I came to the remains of the tree jam piled up by the 2011 slide. Time for a thick detour through the woods.
Back on the brookbed, high ridges looming ahead.
The ravine headwall now in sight.
Reaching the track of the 2011 slide, unleashed by Tropical Storm Irene. The slide scoured out the streambed down here, exposing these steep ledges. I had climbed these on two previous trips, but they seemed a little trickier this time.
Peering down from the scramble.
First views out to the north.
The next set of ledges was fairly wet and tricky, despite the drought.
Looking back.
The very bottom of the 1927 slide, coming down off the left (east) wall of the ravine.
Before ascending partway up the 1927 slide, I continued ahead up the main track, scrambling up the next set of ledges.
Now I could look back to the steep ridge enclosing the ravine on the west side.
Ahead was the wild scene where the 2011 slide merges with the brook coming down off the headwall, plus another slide that fell in 1973.
On the right is the imposing footwall of the 2011 slide, Both times I've gone up on this slide I've bypassed this craggy face through horrendously thick woods on the right.
On the left is a nearly sheer ledge face that was presumably exposed when the massive surge of the slide crashed with immense force into the opposite slope along the brookbed.
The brook flowing off the headwall drops between these two ledge faces. Just above this cascade the 1973 slide enters from the left.
I cut back through a dense screen of alders to the lowest ledge face on the 1927 slide that was the route of the Tunnel Ravine Trail. I can't imagine that ascending or descending this pitch was easy.
I made a short side diversion to an opening with a view up to the lower part of the 2011 slide, which is heavily revegetated with deciduous growth.
I cut back across to a partly open patch on the 1927 slide.
Then I climbed steeply through prickly conifers towards the largest remaining open slab on this slide, some 200 feet higher.
Partway up was this very steep sluice-like formation.
After eating some spruce needles, I struggled up to the edge of the big slab, which was dry but smooth and very steep, at a pitch of 35 degrees or more. I kept along the edge. And behold! There is a white pine, right in the middle of the ledge, at 3700 ft.
Steep! Descending this slide was apparently an adventure, as noted in this 1941 report by Charlotte Crane Root in Appalachia: "The climb down the Tunnel Ravine Trail was wonderful this morning. We jumped and bounced down over the rocks. Dave took a wonderful slide on a very wet slab, which did terrible things to his poor white shorts." Wrote William W. Ballard in 1937 in “Glencliff Trail Notes” (reprinted in The Moosilaukee Reader, Volume II, edited by Robert W. Averill): “Descent of the mountain by way of the Tunnel Slide, which is a difficult scramble even for active people, is an impressive lesson in how mountains are worn away.”
After a detour through the woods, I came around and down through a dense thicket....
...and emerged on a perch at the top of the slab, where I settled in for a much-needed break.
This slide was massive in its day, as seen in this 1933 photo from the Appalachian Mountain Club archives. (Appalachian Mountain Club Library and Archives)
From here I looked across to the steep ridge on the west side of the ravine, and out towards Vermont as far as Camel's Hump.
The birch golds were popping on that west ridge, and the tracks of two of the old slides could be seen as dark strips of softwoods.
I did not relish the idea of descending the steep ledges of the 2011 slide track below the footwall, so I made a long and slow descent though steep woods, testing each foothold for firmness.
I was happy to get down to the brookbed, and look back at the headwall.
Parting shot.
The sun was sinking fast, and I did the last 20 minutes of the bushwhack by headlamp.
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